Some Recent Owling

Recently I have been blessed as to have had the opportunity to go owling at a few spots around AZ. I'll start out with one of the less-recent owling expeditions. A couple months ago I went to Happy Jack Lodge to show Tommy D and Mr. Dominic Sherony some Flammulated Owls which I had found the year before and crushed. The whole night of owling in Happy Jack was amazing, I saw my favorite bird, Tommy got his first Flam for the year (only his second time seeing one), and Dominic got his lifer views and photos! Here are a couple of bad shots which I took.

Flammulated Owl

Another outing was at the  Boyce Thompson Arboretum where my good friend Joshua Smith and I were invited to do the Global Big Day Count. Josh and I decided that we don't get the freedom of birding without limits so we went all out and did 30+ hours of birding (with a full 24 hour day of birding). Although we observed over 80 species of bird (a record high count for the BTA) the highlight of the day, or should I say night, was the owls! Once darkness fell we heard some interesting calls from down in a creek. We followed the calls and then spotted one of the few animals giving these interesting mammal-like calls.

Mystery bird with the moon behind it

Once we turned on the flashlights we were greeted by a whole family of Western Screech-Owls!

Western Screech-Owl--juvenile

Three fledglings and two adults were within this short stretch of creek. The fledglings were continuously calling while the adults hunted for their hungry kids!

Western Screech-Owl--adult

One of the adults even brought a mouse to one of the younglings!

Western Screech-Owl--juvenile with mouse

Is it just me or does that owl look like a fierce lion with its prized catch?!

Or better yet, it was like watching Jurassic Park! Mr. Western Screech-Owl bid us farewell as we continued with our owling.

Western Screech-Owl--adult

Continuing with our scouting we observed an Elf Owl who made an appearance for a couple minutes before never being detected again.

Elf Owl

Before long the sun had risen and we were done with our first night/morning of owling. Racking up some nice birds like a young male Indigo Bunting we enjoyed the daylight hours of the count too! Before the long darkness had fallen yet again and we still needed Elf Owl for the official count. As we hiked through a wash we could hear a pair of Elf Owls calling in the distance. We hiked towards the sound of the calling birds and didn't only find them but found them at their nest!

Elf Owl

Seeing an ELOW in a saguaro cactus was something I've always wanted to observe. And this female was very cooperative!

Elf Owl

My next owing expedition brought me to Organ Pipe National Monument to check up on some Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls. While birding hard with Walker Noe about a month ago, we found a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl nest. Since then I have been out studying these birds and observing this rare and endangered type of Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. When I arrived at the undisclosed location it didn't take me long to hear a male giving his contact calls. Following the bird around, he finally stood still and posed for photos.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

When hunting, FEPOs move around a lot usually not staying on a perch for too long. However, we caught this male while he was ready to get to sleep and he stayed perched on the same branch for a good fifteen or twenty minutes!

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

The owl then decided it was time to do something productive and started hunting.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

The owl then started flying from saguaro to saguaro. I recognized that  the bird did the same thing last time before flying into its cavity never to come out again. Well sure enough the FEPO did the same thing this time! Luckily we were able to snap some photos before he left.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

 From desert owling I went up too the Chiricahua Mountains with Joshua Smith where we birded hard and did some owling. The purpose of us going to the Chiricahua Mountains was to attend a young birders camp which was...well, interesting. Nonetheless, I birded with some awesome people and saw some awesome birds! Throughout the camp Joshua Smith, and an awesome young birder who was at camp the year before Dorian, and I killed it and saw over 120 species of birds! Here's a photo of us birding hard!

Left to right: Me, Joshua, and Dorian

Once darkness fell on the first night we went out in hopes of seeing Whiskered Screech-Owls. I knew of some areas to look but the camp wanted to do their own thing, so I just went with the crowd. We ended up seeing a Whiskered Screech-Owl but there weren't any good photo ops, however, the camp allowed us to owl a little later than the rest of the group. It didn't take us long to find a WHSO on a great perch!

Whiskered Screech-Owl

Throughout the trip I had another chance at crushing Whiskered Screech-Owls, and I did...hard! It was also cool seeing a Whiskered Screech-Owl with so much rufousish/brown coloring in his plumage! Down in Central America there are brown morphed WHSOs so this bird likely had some brown morph genes.

Whiskered Screech-Owl

We followed a pair of WHSOs around the area and observed them interacting and working together.

Whickered Screech-Owl

Now I know that most of you are already on owl-overload but I have one more owl to show you! This was an owl which I, embarrassingly, have not crushed...until the other day! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you some die-hard Northern Pygmy-Owl crushes!

Northern Pygmy-Owl

Oh yes crushing the Northern Pygmy-Owl has been a long delayed task. One might ponder what could be better than crushing one NOPO. Well, crushing several NOPOs of course!!!

Northern Pygmy-Owl--adult in foreground and fledgling in background

Words can't really serve these birds justice so I will leave you with these...

Northern Pygmy-Owl

There you go, that covers most of my owling which I have done this spring, I hope you all enjoyed!

God Bless and BIRD HARD!!!

Caleb

Reaching The Triple Three In Maricopa!

About a month ago Ms. Melanie Herring and Ms. Barb Meding were birding at Hassayampa River Preserve when they found a Thick-billed Kingbird! Thick-billed Kingbirds are very rare for Maricopa County with only a hand full of records (the only other record I know of was from this same spot but eight or so years ago). When I saw their listerve report I was shocked! I wanted to chase that bird right away but due to the preserve's hours and days they were open I wasn't able to chase this magnificent find. As a matter of fact, nearly a whole month went by and the bird was still being seen and I couldn't get out to see it! However, a quick call to my birding mentor, Mr. Joe Ford, changed my luck and before I knew it we had a whole group of people who wanted to see this bird. Now Mr. Ford is a good birder and an amazing teacher! As a matter of fact, Mr. Ford played (and still plays) a big part in my birding career and I have him to thank for where I now stand as a birder.On June 18th I woke up early in the morning to meet up with Mr. Ford, Mr. Paul Doucett, Ms. Mitra Samadani, and Mr. Jerry and Ms. Linda Molinelli to bird hard at the Hass! There were two possible Maricopers that I could get at the Hass, Thick-billed Kingbird (of course) and Purple Martin (usually just seen as a flyover by lucky birders). Arriving at the Hassayampa River Preserve, we observed a beautiful male Broad-billed Hummingbird flying back in forth from the trees to the feeders.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Moving on with the hummingbirds we quickly hit the Mesquite Meander Trail (where there have been Thick-billed and Tropical Kingbirds) in hopes of Maricopering it hard! Yellow Warblers and Yellow-breated Chats were singing like crazy, out in the distance I heard the distinctive squeaky call of the Thick-billed Kingbird! We hiked down the trail further to where it was calling from and then, bam, Thick-billed Kingbird!

Thick-billed Kingbird--Maricoper #333!!!

It didn't hit me until now that the Thick-billed Kingbird was my 333rd species I had seen in Maricopa, what a cool milestone!

Thick-billed Kingbird

This photo almost shows how loud TBKIs are!

Thick-billed Kingbird

The Thick-billed Kingbird is a Mexican bird which reaches its furthest northern range in southeastern Arizona. Up until last month (when I was in SEAZ with Walker and Dalton) I had never seen a TBKI and it almost became a nemesis bird for me, however, Walker saved the day with his keen eyes! Seeing this bird in my home county was even better though! While we watched the TBKI a pair of Tropical Kingbirds flew in. The Tropical Kingbird is another Mexican bird who reaches its furthest northern range in southeastern Arizona, however, this species has started to move north and is now a regular breeder at Hassayampa (with at least 3-6 pairs along the Hassayampa River)!

Tropical Kingbird

Throughout the rest of our Hassayampa exploration we encountered cool birds such as a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a couple of Willow Flycatchers, more Tropical Kingbirds, and this distant female Bronzed Cowbird.

Bronzed Cowbird

It was nice getting back into birding Maricopa County and this outing kinda resparked my passion for birding Maricopa County! Getting my 333rd bird for MC was awesome as well! Haha, now I'm only 67 species away from my goal of getting 400 species in Maricopa County, a task which no one has yet to conquer! However, reaching this goal would mean I pretty much have to live in MC for the rest of my life and life is practically impossible to predict, so I have no idea if I will end up reaching this goal!

In the mean time, have a great week everyone!!!

God Bless and BIRD HARD!!!

Caleb

Birding Hard in SEAZ (The Finale!!!)

Only a few days after Walker, Dalton, and I 'ended' our bird hard SEAZ trip an unbelievable report came into the AZNM Listserve and Facebook. Dave Stejskal had been camping out at Aliso Springs in a desolate canyon along the east flank of the Santa Rita Mountains (near where I had recently seen the Red-headed Woodpecker) and while he was camping he found a very interesting empidonax flycatcher. Now this empid looked like a gray Western 'type' Flycatcher with a nearly entirely orange lower mandible. The thing that stuck out most, however, was the soft "whip" call this bird frequently gave. After having a vague idea on what this bird was, Dave went out along with some more of AZ's best birders and they made the call that this was the first record for the United States Pine Flycatcher!!!!!! Once Walker informed me of this amazing find we desperately searched for a ride down to where it was, three hours away from Phoenix. So after some confusion in last second planning Walker, Dalton, and I had a ride to the Pine Flycatcher! Our ride for the flycatcher was from Phoenix at noon, so Walker and I made plans to do some birding before noon. Our plans were to go for Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls in Organ Pipe National Monument with a good friend of our's and then after hopefully seeing the Ferru Pygs we'd return to Phoenix and go for the flycatcher. At around five in the morning we arrived at Organ Pipe and started our search. Before today I had only heard a FEPO once giving its rapid "tooting" call. So once we got to our 'stakeout spot' it wasn't long before we spotted a chunky brown bird fly into a mesquite. I lifted my binocs and all I said after that was "OH MY GOSH!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!"

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

It was a our Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl! After enjoying distant views for a while Walker and I fallowed the bird up a hill to where we had better views.

Fallowing our prized bird around, it eventually flew up on the top of a saguaro cactus where it starred down upon the scenic desert environment.

Now after observing the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl for a good amount of time I came to the conclusion that the FEPO is the Northern Hawk Owl of the southwest. Now although the FEPO is a lot smaller than the hawk owl it makes up in fierceness and and authority! A male FEPO was once observed taking down a Mourning Dove three times its own weight!

In Arizona we get a distinct population of FEPOs called the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. Just over a hundred years ago the CFPO ranged as far north as New River just north of Phoenix. Unfortunately, over the year the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl has become endangered and there are now only a few pairs left in AZ.

While Walker and I followed this female CFPO around it all the sudden flew into a whole in a saguaro cactus. This was its nest and it had fledglings!

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl's nesting cavity (note the FEPO's feather on the right side of the whole)

When the female FEPO flew into the cavity we heard fledglings begging, what a good sign! We kept our distance from the cavity and waited a few minutes for it to come out before we called it quits.

After a nice breakfast in Gila Bend we made our way back to Phoenix where we met up with fellow birder James McKay who gave Walker, Dalton, and I a ride to the Pine Flycatcher (Thanks Mr. James, you're awesome!). After a three hour drive to Gardener Canyon Road (near Sonoita) we turned off the highway and drove nine and a half miles on dirt roads. In many spots the road was rough but we were chasing an ABA 1st so we could care less! Arriving at Aliso Springs there was only one car present (I guess most of the birders were scared off by the rough road). We got out of the car and the birders kindly pointed out the Pine Flycatcher's nest! We waited a few seconds before I spotted our target bird flying in! The bird then landed nearly straight above our heads!

Pine Flycatcher!!!

Once the flycatcher came in cameras were firing like machine-guns! Why? Because it was an ABA first, of course!

Pine Flycatcher--note the entirely orange lower mandible 

The Pine Flycatcher is a Mexican bird who's range is quite restricted. What was funny and cool was that no one who I was with had ever heard of a Pine Flycatcher before today!

Pine Flycatcher

Throughout our long observation of this Mexican vagrant it was building a nest in an oak tree. It would collect nesting material like spider webs,small twigs, lichen, and such and bring it to its nest where it would sit on the nest and give it its shape.

Pine Flycatcher on nest

Walker, Dalton, James, and I were pumped to see the Pine Flycatcher! It was hard to leave this bird but we had one more spot we wanted to hit really quick before heading back to Phoenix. Since the Red-headed Woodpecker wasn't too far out of the way on our way back to the valley we stopped by to try to get James his state lifer. Upon arriving, Walker and I very briefly saw the woodpecker fly into the oak woodlands. Hopefing to relocate the woodpecker we had some nice birds like a calling Whiskered Screech-Owl (in the day!). While we were hiking along a creek we noticed a pair of Montezuma Quail cross the creek and go into some grass. We were quite sure that the quail were hunched down in the grass so we walked around this 20x20 square foot patch of grass for a couple minutes. I started to think that the quail left without us noticing and we started to tell stories of how scary it can be when you nearly step on a MONQ and they flush from less than a foot away. While we were in the middle of our conversation "BOOM!!!!" the Montezuma Quail flushed right on cue! After nearly having a heart-attack we hiked back up to where the woodpecker had usually been seen and it didn't take us too long to find it sitting on a snag.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Ending the day with a code three owl, an ABA 1st record, and a rare for AZ RHWO was amazing! Before the owl and flycatcher Walker, Dalton, and I's bird hard SEAZ trip was scored at 8/10 but these birds brought us to a pure 10/10!!! We ended up getting 17 of the 18 lifers which we chased which was super awesome and I have God to thank for this trip and our success!!! Saying farewell to the Noe family was hard but perhaps another out-of-state trip to Idaho and Washington is to come, I do need Great Gray, Boreal, and Barred Owls so it would be nice to see those birds. In the mean time, AZ has a lot of nice owls and the monsoon breeders are starting to come in so I have a lot to keep me busy!

Have a great week everyone!

God Bless and BIRD HARD!!!

Caleb

Birding Hard in SEAZ (Day 4)

Here it was, the last day of our triple attack on SEAZ! Walker woke Dalton and I up at 4:30 A.M. and drove us over to Santa Rita Lodge, so we could search for the Plain-capped Starthroat which has eluded Dalton and I for days (Walker got it a few days ago)! Before we even got off of Proctor road Walker spied a pair of Montezuma Quail sitting frozen in the middle of the road!

Montezuma Quail

Walker dropped Dalton and I off at the lodge and then drove back down to Proctor road where he caught up on some well-needed rest. Dalton and I were the first people to arrive at the lodge. We waited for over an hour without luck. One hour then turned into two, and then 3. Now I, as a birder, am use to doing a lot of hiking and other energy consuming activities to find birds. But sitting was actually harder than hiking a mile or two or biking around my patch! Dalton and I had been sitting down watching the same feeders for over three hours without our bird! Luckily there were many cool birds like this colorful and cooperative Blue Grosbeak.

Blue Grosbeak

Exhausted by hour hardcore feeder watching, I had about lost hope in us finding the Plain-capped Starthroat. However, while I was out of it I heard a chip note from a large hummingbird coming from one of the feeders and sure enough it was Dalton and I's lifer Plain-capped Starthroat!!!

Plain-capped Starthroat

Our observation was short but everyone at the feeders got great looks at this code 4 rarity! Once the hummer flew off Dalton and I were jumping up and down in excitement! We hiked down to Proctor Road to proclaim our victory over Walker. After he congratulated us on our success I heard a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet calling from fairly close. In a couple minutes I got my photo-lifer NBTY!

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

After packing up camp, the three of us drove up to the top of Madera Canyon to crush some trogons. Upon arriving at a nest we had great views of a male.

Elegant Trogon

After crushing hard on Mr. Trogon we ended our SEAZ bird hard trip. Before getting back to my house in Buckeye I showed Walker some Burrowing Owls which we also crushed.

Burrowing Owl

This Burrowing Owl ended our AZ bird hardness...or did it? Only an extremely rare bird would change this. Stay tuned to find out what might have changed our plans...